Great week for EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) institutional investors after losing 23% over the previous year

Key Insights

• Significantly high institutional ownership implies EQT's stock price is sensitive to their trading actions
• A total of 8 investors have a majority stake in the company with 51% ownership
• Recent sales by insiders

To get a sense of who is truly in control of EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 82% to be precise, is institutions. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutional investors would appreciate the 4.5% increase in share price last week, given their one-year losses have totalled a disappointing 23%.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of EQT, beginning with the chart below.

Check out our latest analysis for EQT

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About EQT?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in EQT. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at EQT's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. EQT is not owned by hedge funds. The company's largest shareholder is T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., with ownership of 14%. The second and third largest shareholders are Wellington Management Group LLP and The Vanguard Group, Inc., with an equal amount of shares to their name at 9.0%.

We did some more digging and found that 8 of the top shareholders account for roughly 51% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

While it makes sense to study institutional ownership data for a company, it also makes sense to study analyst sentiments to know which way the wind is blowing. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of EQT

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of EQT Corporation in their own names. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$120m of stock. Arguably recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 16% stake in EQT. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand EQT better, we need to consider many other factors. Be aware that EQT is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is significant...

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.